


The Calm After

by kelex



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 12:19:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18388313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelex/pseuds/kelex
Summary: In the calm after the Monster's departure, only Margo seems to realize that Q's a ticking time bomb of mental breakdown.





	The Calm After

**Author's Note:**

> Previously posted on my tumblr, and many more thanks to everyone who liked it there, and who reblogged it there, and who left encouragement on it or in my messages.

Sleep. Sleep was a certainty, because Quentin had only slept for snatches here and there, an hour or two here, fifteen minutes there, ever since the Monster had come back and found him sleeping and threatened Eliot’s body.

Except now, Eliot was back, and sleeping like the dead. He’d surfaced enough to say, “I’m back, bitches,” and collapsed into Quentin’s waiting arms. He and Penny had managed to get him into the bedroom, and Margo had physically shoved Quentin into the bathroom. “You stink,” she had said with her customary tact.

He’d spent thirty minutes in the shower, crying against the tile and staving off a full-fledged mental break. He’d shaved, gotten into clean clothes, and crawled into bed beside Eliot. Margo was on the other side, and he hoped that feeling so much love from his best friend and, well, whatever he himself was, would help soothe Eliot’s dreams and help him rest better.

“Q, if you don’t stop giving off nervous energy I’m going to kill you,” Margo threatened from the other side of the bed. “You need to calm the fuck down.”

Easier said than done. But he took a deep breath, shuddering as he expelled it, and tucked his head in Eliot’s shoulder. He was far enough away that the steady thump of Eliot’s heart was muffled, and he could only hear it if he forced himself to be still. 

Closing his eyes, Quentin rested his head on Eliot’s shoulder, using the sound of Eliot’s heart to measure his breathing. Before he realized it, he was falling asleep to the comforting pulse in his ear. 

\-----

Fingers sliding through his hair woke him, and his first instinct was to shake his head; the Monster had touched him at will and he hadn’t liked it. The hand came back, touching differently, and it was followed by the brush of thumb over his cheekbone. 

“El?”

“I kinda hate to bother you because you looked so adorable when you were sleeping, but I really have to go to the bathroom.” Eliot’s voice was scratchy, but it was his voice, and he was smiling. “Like right now.”

“Oh, God. Oh, yeah, okay, sure.” Quentin nearly fell over himself getting up out of the bed, so that Eliot could roll out without waking up Margo. “You hungry, or anything? Thirsty?”

“Q. Let me piss, okay? then you can question me.” Eliot stumbled into the bathroom, and closed the door behind himself.

“He always wakes up hungry,” came Margo’s voice from the bed.

“Yeah, for bacon. Or potatoes. Or both,” Quentin agreed, thinking of just how many breakfasts he’d made for Eliot at the cottage. Fifty years worth, in fact.

“So why’re you standing here? Go fire up the stove and I promise I’ll send him out as soon as he’s done.” Margo winked at Quentin. “I won’t lay a hand on him, I swear. His honor is safe in my hands.”

“I know that.” He dragged a hand through his short hair, missing the long locks that hid his face for the first time. “I just… I know it’s stupid, and dumb, but I feel like… if I leave, and I come back, he’ll be gone again. Like I want to go kick down the door right now and make sure he’s still in the bathroom, even though I hear the shower.” Which he did, there was the distinct sound of water bouncing off tiles. 

“Quentin, you’re overthinking things. You’re traumatized, just like the rest of us have been. I get it. I do. He’s important to me, too, and we both need to know he’s there. So go and do your thing in the kitchen, and let me get him ready to face the world, and then he’s all yours.” Reaching out, she pulled one of Quentin’s hands into both of her own. “I love him too, and I won’t let anything happen to him again.”

“Neither will I.” Quentin swept what was left of his bangs behind his ear. “I just…”

“I know. Now stop being a cock and give me a little time alone with him.” Margo let go of his hands and pushed him towards the door. “Five minutes, and then you can bring in coffee. Black. A lot of it.”

Quentin nodded. “Okay. I can do that. Black coffee. And maybe breakfast. Tell him… yeah. Just tell him.” He fled the bedroom. 

The shower turned off as soon as the bedroom door closed, and Eliot came out of the bathroom. “Where’s Q?”

“Making coffee and food for you, because you need to eat something that isn’t Cheetos and booze,” Margo answered. 

“Oh. I’m not really–”

“Don’t care. That boy is about to explode, and I had to give him something to do. He’s a walking time bomb, and I don’t want him to go off all over me.” Then she wrapped her arms around Eliot, wet towel and everything. “Don’t you ever do that again.” 

“Sorry, Bambi,” he murmured into her ear, pulling her close and resting his cheek on her hair. “I won’t. I’ll behave.”

“No you won’t.” She muttered it into his chest, but followed it with a smile up at him. “Quentin is–’

“Mine,” Eliot answered simply. “I rejected him once before, and it was really the worst mistake I ever made. Believe me. I spent enough time in my own head to figure that out. But I’m not afraid any more. Don’t worry about Q, I’ll take care of him.”

“About fucking time.” Margo’s smile widened a bit. “I’ll stick close if you need me.”

“Please stay,” he agreed, and was interrupted by the world’s most timid knock. “Come in, Quentin, and tell me you brought vodka.”

“Of course.” The bottle of Grey Goose was standing unopened on the tray, alongside three cups of black coffee and a little pitcher of milk. “I need to go shopping, I guess it’s been kind of a low priority or whatever, cause, uh, we have nothing. Except grape Pop-Tarts, if that’s your thing.”

“No, thank you.” Eliot took the tray from Quentin, sat it on the bedside table, and then wrapped his fingers around Q’s wrists. “Come here.” 

Gentle pulls steered Quentin until he was standing between Eliot’s knees, and he was looking down at Eliot’s bare feet. “Eliot, I–”

“No. My turn.” Using his grip on Quentin to steady himself, Eliot stood up, and then dropped Q’s hands so that he could cup his face instead. The first kiss was to his forehead, and then each of his cheeks, and lastly, the real kiss planted on his lips. 

Margo uncapped the vodka bottle and doctored each coffee cup with a rather large dollop, and sipped at hers as she watched. Quentin’s arms wrapped around Eliot’s waist and pulled him close, supporting him even as he leaned into Eliot’s taller frame. She watched Quentin rise onto his tiptoes, straining to get even those few millimeters more close, saw Eliot’s hands anchor themselves in Quentin’s hair. 

When his leg moved between Quentin’s, that’s when Margo stood up. “Okay, come up for air before you suffocate, and I don’t need to see anything else.” 

Quentin stammered as Eliot slowly pulled his mouth away, but kept him close. “Uh, Margo, maybe you could, i don’t know, maybe you could–”

“Get lost, Bambi,” Eliot finished. “I’ve got a lot to make up for.”

“Sure, fine, kick out your High Queen.” She raised the coffee cup in a salute. “But if you’re going to bone, lock the door. With magic, not just a lock, because nobody knocks around here.”

“Ar–are we going to?”

Eliot’s fingers traced up Quentin’s throat, feeling the words ripple against his fingertips. “Yes, we are.”

Quentin’s attention was riveted on Margo. “Margo, leave.” He tilted his head back to encourage Eliot’s attentions. “Please,” he thought to add.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going.” Margo closed the door behind herself, and locked it with Maygar’s Lock. Because that would take some doing to undo. And she didn’t think they’d be coming out anytime soon anyway. 

“Hey, where’s Q?” Julia came into the apartment, carrying two shopping bags of groceries. 

“With Eliot, getting defused,” Margo explained.

“Def–oh.” She didn’t need to be a psychic like Penny to translate that. “So, uh, Eliot’s awake and okay?”

“Yep. Close to his old self, for now anyway.” she turned back to the locked door. “I have a feeling they’re going to be different by the time they’re done. They’ve got a lot to talk about.”

-end


End file.
